Michael Barbaro

Earl Wilson/The New York Times

Michael Barbaro writes about politics and government. His specialty is intimate portraits of the powerful.

In 2012, he covered the presidential campaign of Mitt Romney. He wrote a series of biographical stories that explored the candidate’s career at Bain Capital, time as governor of Massachusetts, history as a manager and longtime friendship with the prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu.

On the less hard-hitting front, he interviewed Mr. Romney’s hair stylist, revealing the secrets behind the candidate’s meticulous mane.

In New York, where he is based, Mr. Barbaro has chronicled Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s obsession with muscle cars, City Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn’s relationship with her father and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s weekend getaways to Bermuda — a hardship assignment that involved staying on the island for a week.

He has written extensively about the battle over legalizing same-sex marriage in New York, the proposed Muslim center in Lower Manhattan and the decision to overturn New York City’s term limits law.

From 2005 to 2007, Mr. Barbaro covered the United States retailing industry for The Times, focusing on Wal-Mart Stores, the nation’s largest retailer. His reporting uncovered a secret memo in which the company’s board of directors sought to cut costs by discouraging unhealthy people from applying for jobs.

In 2007, federal investigators accused a Wal-Mart employee of improperly eavesdropping on Mr. Barbaro’s phone calls to Wal-Mart, prompting an apology from the retailer’s chief executive.

His time on the retail beat gave him a taste for fashion and an interest in raising the sartorial standards in the style-challenged Times newsroom.

Before joining The Times in 2005, Mr. Barbaro worked at The Washington Post, NBC News and The Miami Herald.

He grew up in North Haven, Conn., and graduated from Yale University in 2002, with a degree in history.

August 1, 2015, Saturday

In a speech in Florida to a largely black audience at the annual meeting of the National Urban League, Hillary Rodham Clinton derided the policies and proposals of Jeb Bush, a former governor of the state.

July 31, 2015, Friday

Donald J. Trump on Wednesday called the lawyer who took out a breast pump in front of him during a 2011 deposition a “vicious, horrible person,” even as he acknowledged his angry response to the incident.